Events
Announcing our Fall Town Hall Series!
Register below to reserve a spot in your city!
Monroe County Public Library, 300 E. Kirkwood
Sundays, 4-6 pm ET
Mitchell Park Community Center, 3700 Middlefield
Sundays, 1-3 pm PT
Town Hall Sponsors
SERIES SPONSORS
Master Bridge Builders ($1,000 and up)
Laurie and Michael McRobbie
Jane and Patrick Martin
Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce
Dialogue Leaders ($500-$999)
Mayor John Hamilton
Terry Godfrey
Rotary Club of Palo Alto/University
Political and Community Engagement (PACE) program, Indiana University
In-Kind Donors
City of Bloomington, IN
City of Palo Alto, CA
Community Access Television Services (CATS)
Hobee's California Restaurants
League of Women Voters of Palo Alto
Bridging Regional Divides Sponsors
Conversation Convenors ($250)
Rotary Club of Palo Alto
Bloomington Rotary Club
Friendship Facilitators ($100)
Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce
Race and Belonging Sponsors
Conversation Convenors ($250)
Silicon Valley NAACP
City Councilor Jim Sims & Mrs. Doris Sims
Friendship Facilitators ($100)
Lily Chiu
Joan Fantazia
Aram James
Climate Action Sponsors
Friendship Facilitators ($100)
Bloom Magazine
Palo Alto Weekly
Interested in Sponsoring? Learn more here.
Talk by Douglas Hofstadter
Thursday, Sept 7, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT
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Live at Monroe Co. Pubic Library, Downtown Bloomington
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Live streamed to Rinconada Library, Palo Alto
Douglas R. Hofstadter, Professor of Cognitive Science and Comparative Literature at Indiana University, will share thoughts on the first two Sibling Cities. He knows them well, having spent most of his childhood in Palo Alto and most of his adulthood in Bloomington. His Pulitzer-prize-winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, has had a considerable impact on people in many disciplines, ranging from philosophy to mathematics, artificial intelligence, music, and beyond.
Click on your city below to learn more from the library hosts:
Civil Discourse Launch
In February 2023, Sibling Cities launched its Civil Discourse program. The kick-off included mayors of inaugural cities Bloomington, IN, and Palo Alto, CA , along with Living Room Conversations Co-Founder Joan Blades and former IU President & Stanford Dean Tom Ehrlich.
Both Town Halls and small group discussions using the Living Room Conversations platform will be held among residents of the two cities during the next year. Some kickoff attendeees participated in the first Living Room Conversations event afterward, and the response was enthusiastic! You can hear from participants and watch the Launch Event below.
First-Ever City Pair Kickoff!
“In this moment to have a group of mayors and cities and citizens come together and decide that we want to recognize ourselves institutionally and civilly as siblings, this is something to be excited about, something to rejoice in, and certainly lend support to.”
TARA VANDERVEER
Indiana University alumna and Stanford
Women's Basketball Head Coach
“As a coach, one of the things that I really feel is the most important part of our team is the fact that we have a sisterhood, so if we can encourage sisterhood between Palo Alto and Bloomington I think that would be a great service.”
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS
Former NAACP President and professor
at Harvard University
GUEST SPEAKERS
On 15, February 2022, the mayors of Bloomington, IN and Palo Alto, CA entered the first ever Sibling Cities agreement during a launch celebration. Former NAACP President Cornell William Brooks and Stanford Womens Basketball Head Coach Tara VanDerveer were featured speakers. You can watch the video of the event below!
